When Celtic are heading off on their European travels, I tend to feel a sense of trepidation. I know how just how tough it is to go on the road in Europe and come back with a result. It is not easy.

But then when you look down the list of personnel at Celtic, you think that there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to go and do something.

You have Filip Benkovic in there who looks every inch worth the £13m that Leicester paid for him this summer. I think he has shown already that he exudes composure and confidence at the back and alongside Dedryck Boyata, a £9m Belgian internationalist, then Celtic should have the spine of a right good central defence.

It won’t be a long standing partnership. Benkovic will return to the Foxes either in January or at the end of the season and Boyata will not be at Celtic beyond this season either.

But for now the dup look capable of forming a pretty solid duo at the heart of the Celtic defence.

It looks as though Scott Brown will be struggling to play against Leipzip on Thursday night and that is a blow because in these games I think his influence is huge.

Much of what he does in terms of breaking up play goes unnoticed until he is not in the team but more than that is just the leadership qualities than can be so important in a game of this magnitude.

Given that Celtic could really do with taking something from the game then it is a real hindrance when you are missing big players – and they don’t come much bigger than Brown.

It is the same with Leigh Griffiths too. I don’t know whether or not he will have a part to play given the lack of time he has had on a pitch these last few weeks so it leaves Celtic a little bit exposed when it comes to their forward options.

In that sense, Odsonne Edouard will have benefitted hugely from the two goals he got at the weekend. I thought it might have been one of those days for the striker after he hit the woodwork a couple of times and it will be good for his confidence going into a game like this on the back of a brace.

Strikers all feed off goals and getting back in amongst it will be good for him. You have to remember that he is still a young guy but this is the time now when he has to show what he has got.

He will have it in the back of his head that he was able to go and do it against Salzburg over in Austria so the fact he has already scored in the tournament is good.

But if the likes of Edouard know that they need to be able to take any sniff of a chance then the same goes throughout the team.

Tom Rogic and James Forrest were pretty much unplayable at the weekend against Hibs. Forrest for me is playing out of skin at the minute and the work he does is huge for the strikers – his pace and his final ball mean he is always able to create something and any forward worth his salt should be feeding off that.

We all know what Rogic has got too. He is an elegant player but he will know himself that as Celtic go into games such as this one on Thursday night that he has got to be able to reproduce a performance at the same level as the one against Hibs.

I suspect that Callum McGregor will deputise for Brown if the Celtic captain doesn’t make it and while that is a sensible swap, you also lose something then with McGregor not able to offer you what he does normally in terms of an attacking threat.

This is a game where Celtic desperately want to have something to show for their efforts. They don’t want to wave goodbye to this game.

With another two home games still to play, I just feel that if you could take a point from this trip to Germany then it could really set you up for the second spot. It won’t be easy.

They are a strong team in an excellent league.

Celtic need belief and a game plan but if they can go and work their socks off and make sure that they stay in the game and don’t shoot themselves in the foot with any stupid mistakes then they have it well within them to bring something back.

They’ve shown that they have still got a bit about them in recent weeks and the last thing you want is to puncture that belief with a poor performance.

They have players just now who are hitting a bit of form and sometimes just that little bit of swagger can make the difference.